Many first-time home buyers in the United States face more than just a difficult mortgage lending environment that prevents them from achieving the American Dream of homeownership. Student loans are increasingly becoming insurmountable obstacles that reduce home-buying opportunities at a time when the U.S. housing market needs first-time home buyers to sustain the ongoing recovery.

(WSJ) With the worst of the housing bust still fresh in homeowners’ minds, it’s a small wonder what some owners are saying they most regret: not buying bigger. It’s just one finding from a new survey by real-estate website Trulia TRLA -1.25%. The survey, which is scheduled to be released in full on Wednesday, also highlights the changing tide for home sellers, who now have the upper hand in markets amid rising prices and low inventory. Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, sat down with the WSJ’s “Lunch Break” to discuss some of the findings.

The housing market, finally, is recovering. Home prices are up 8 percent over the past year. And that is providing relief to a particular set of homeowners – the underwater borrowers who owe more than their properties are worth. Over past year alone, 1.7 million homeowners have climbed out from being underwater.

Like many entrepreneurs with a business idea, mine was born out of personal frustration. When I was buying a house in Athens, Georgia, I became dumbfounded by the amount of important paper documents I had to submit in order to close the deal. Having spent years creating technologies for the financial services industry, I thought we’d passed the age of photocopies and faxes. But we hadn't and I knew there had to be a better way.